


Mirror, Mirror

by Guardian_of_Hope



Series: Through The Looking Glass [1]
Category: Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man - Fandom, Marvel, The Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Humor, Interdimensional Travel, Trouble, self-hate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-21
Updated: 2011-11-29
Packaged: 2017-10-26 09:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/281220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_Hope/pseuds/Guardian_of_Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one of Loki's spells hits the wrong target, Tony Stark finds himself in an alternate universe where everything has changed. Steve isn't mentally scarred, Thor moonlights as a doctor, Clint and Natasha aren't Avengers, Jarvis is human and nobody knows that Tony, or rather Anthony Stark, is Iron Man.</p><p>What's a guy to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mirror, Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> This is Tony Stark from a universe not unlike the movies meets Tony Stark from a universe not unlike the comics.
> 
> That is, if I knew more than a few random facts about the comics. Don't expect much team interaction because I don't know the rest of the Avengers like I do Tony, Steve and Thor. (At least, I know them from the movies...)

_Loki glared at Captain America, “If you will not die then you shall leave!” He had proclaimed before unleashing a bolt of sickly green energy._

 _Tony hadn’t thought twice, Cap’s shield had been caught and his friend was defenseless. Trusting to his armor, Tony leaped between Captain America and Loki, taking the energy beam on his back. There had been a jolt, an impression of the world spinning and then blackness._

Tony opened his eyes to find himself in the flickering half light of the Iron Man suit. It was trying to reboot, but everything was flickering. “JARVIS,” Tony said, “what’s going on?”

He was met with silence.

Then the HUD flickered on for a moment and Tony found himself looking through the optic sensors at…himself?

Then the HUD shut off and all the light he’d had, vanished.


	2. Through The Looking Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anthony Stark had few expectations. This surpassed all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anthony Stark is the comic version  
> Tony Stark is the movie version

Anthony Stark had expected many things to happen in his workshop beneath the Avenger’s Mansion. He expected to create fantastic machines that did everything. He expected to fine tune the Iron Man armor. He expected the occasional explosion when his tinkering of the armor didn’t go exactly as he had planned.

He did not expect to have a sudden power surge coupled with the appearance of Iron Man. In a heartbeat, he took in the differences between this new suit and his. The armor was slightly more streamlined, the red and gold were a little off, and instead of a glowing round hole there was a triangular one.

He stared down at the suit for a long moment, there was a muffled sound, like a voice, before the optic beams flickered on for a few moments, and then blinked out again. At that moment, Steve burst into the lab and Anthony prepared himself for explanations. “Mr. Stark,” Steve began, then, “Iron Man, are you ok?”

Anthony thought fast and spoke faster, “He should be fine. We were just testing some new upgrades to the armor and things got a little out of control. Don’t worry, the old armor is still intact and everything. I apologize for the power surge; it was an unanticipated response to the feedback.”

“Do you need any help?” Steve asked.

Anthony smiled at his friend, “No, but thank you for the offer. I don’t think we’ll have to lever him out, just a touch of power and all that. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get it taken care of now.”

“Of course,” Steve said and stepped back.

“I’ll send Iron Man upstairs as soon as he’s free,” Anthony added, “clearly this new design has a few bugs to work out.”

“If you say so,” Steve began.

“Mr. Stark!” Thor boomed, as he came down the stars, “Is all well with you?”

“Yes,” Anthony called back, “I apologize for the power it was an accident.”

“We’ll let you get back to work,” Steve said, “I’ll keep everyone from bothering you.”

“Thank you,” Anthony said. He watched until Thor and Steve was safely out of sight, then he locked down the lab. Turning back to the suit now lying on the floor of his workspace, Anthony approached with caution, “Now let’s see who you are,” he murmured.

The suit moved for a moment, then the faceplate lifted and Anthony Stark saw his own face without having to see a tabloid or a mirror.


	3. I Looked At The Mirror

The two stared at each other for a long moment, and then Tony pushed himself up, wincing at the delays in the suit’s responsiveness. Something had been damaged by whatever Loki had done, not to mention the fact that JARVIS was gone. The primitive ‘battle mind’ AI he’d begun developing specifically for the suit was the only computer on board. “Hi,” he said cautiously to his doppelganger. “Where am I?” He glanced at the concrete walls, and double metal doors that the doppelganger had been facing.

There were tables that he thought looked a little familiar, and a row of suits in cases lined one wall. He knew this room, he thought, or he knew one just like it. Something was missing, and not just Dummy and the other ‘bots.

“Avenger Mansion,” the man replied, stepping towards him cautiously, he gestured to the room, “this is my workshop, to be exact.”

“Avenger Mansion,” Tony repeated, because a second glance and he was beginning to actually notice the clutter he’d ignored in his first sweep of the room. The nagging familiarity of the room, combined with the suits and the junk started a tiny kernel of an idea deep inside. “I’ve never heard of it.” He glanced up at the man and decided to get a few of the hard questions out of the way, “How did I get here, who are you and why do you look like me?”

“I’m sure you know better than I how you got here, but I’d hazard that either Reid Richards performing experiments without letting people know, again, or something happened where ever you originated from to relocate you.” The man said with a smoother copy of Tony’s trademark smirk, “I am Anthony Stark and I’m not sure. Who are you?”

“Tony Stark,” Tony replied, cautiously. He carefully pushed himself to his feet. “Is this some trick by Loki? Trap me in a small room with a doppelganger until what, you kill me?” Keep talking, keep pushing, and don’t think about it, he reminded himself, recognizing the edge of a panic attack. He’d never had a panic attack before the cave, but afterwards? Every once in a while, he’d find himself in another situation where he was ‘trapped’ and if he wasn’t carefully, he’d lose himself to the panic.

“Unless you attack me,” Anthony Stark said, “I’m not going to kill you.” He held his hand up, “On my honor, Tony Stark. You’ve mentioned Loki, were you fighting him? Did he cast a spell at you?”

“He was aiming for Captain America,” Tony muttered, remembering the split second, nearly instinctive moment when he’d thrown himself in front of Steve. “I kind of got in the way.”

“Nice,” Anthony said. “It’s not like he doesn’t have that very nice vibranium shield to protect him.”

“It’s kind of hard to use the shield when it’s about ten feet away and stuck in quick dry concrete,” Tony muttered, remembering how Loki’s magic had leaped to imprison the shield. “The armor could have handled a levin bolt, it has before.”

“I know that,” Anthony said, “if your suit is anything like mine. Speaking of which, I need to go upstairs and make an appearance.”

“So, why did you tell them I was Iron Man?” Tony asked as he watched his hand move in and out of a fist. He’d probably have to strip it down and pull it back together.

“Because the Avengers don’t know that I am Iron Man. They think he’s my bodyguard.” Anthony replied. He gestured, “There’s a shower back there if you need it, and we’re probably the same size so feel free to borrow my clothes. I’ll come back down later and we can figure this out.”

“If you say so,” Tony said.

“Besides, your suit needs an overhaul. When I get back, I’ll show you where I keep my tools.” Anthony said.

“Thanks,” Tony replied, still not sure why they hadn’t just told the others the full truth.


	4. Through A Glass Darkly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have just spent three and a half hours slogging through comic book trivia to figure out all the comic book aspects I want to keep and all I have to say is this… there’s way too much going on to really figure this all out and I refuse to say this is at all related to ANY cannon. Ever. Just enjoy, right?

Having assured his teammates that ‘Iron Man’ was fine, and, in fact, found the whole test gone wrong scenario hilarious, Anthony returned to the workshop to ‘keep an eye on Mr. Stark’ before something else happened. He walked back into the workshop to find Tony standing in a pair of tight black jeans and a black muscle shirt through which an odd, blue light glowed. As Tony froze over the armor he’d clearly been settling on a clear table, Anthony studied the odd light pattern, wondering what it was. “What is that?” He asked, pointing at it.

Tony looked down at his chest, “This?” He pointed at the lights, “It’s nothing. Part of the power source.” Tony’s cold response as he began to rearrange his armor again served as a reminder to Anthony that they didn’t actually know each other. “Let’s not talk about that.”

“All right,” Anthony said as leaned against one of the other tables, “is there anything you want to know?”

“Besides how I got here,” Tony said dryly, “why don’t they know you’re Iron Man?”

“Circumstances after Afghanistan were so horrible,” Anthony said, “what with the company, and Stane, and the Ten Rings, everyone was questioning my sanity. If they had found out about the armor, about me fighting terrorists, everything I was trying to fix, everything I was trying to rebuild, it would have been for nothing. So I told people I had a bodyguard, Iron Man. There are dozens of rumors about why the full body armor, but every time something happens, I’m not paranoid, I’m right.” He stiffened slightly, “Wait, do people know that you are Iron Man?”

“Of course they do,” Tony replied. “I wasn’t about to let SHIELD tell me how to live my life and in six months, I successfully privatized world peace.” He smirked at that statement. “I even got a medal.”

“I can’t see how you kept the military from taking the suit,” Anthony replied.

“At first, it was because I own all of it, and even when the Senate tried to force me, I had the law on my side.” Tony glanced down at his suit and picked up one of the gauntlets. “I had some problems with the reactor, so I went a step further. I made Rhodey a suit.”

“James Rhode, you mean?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah,” Tony said, “of course he then went to Hammer for weapons, but I did make him a suit. Now that the military has their ‘War Machine’ or whatever they’re calling him this week, and the fact that I’ve been officially hired by SHIELD for their Avengers Initiative, they’ve backed off.”

“I thought you didn’t like SHIELD,” Anthony said, “You dismissed them pretty quickly.”

“I don’t,” Tony replied, “but I took the job on my conditions, not theirs. Besides, if I hadn’t of, a lot of things would have gone differently for them, I think.” He looked at the gauntlet in his hand and blinked. “So, if they don’t know you’re Iron Man, what’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” Anthony said. “I don’t know how they’d take it if I told them about this.”

“And you don’t want to compromise your identity either,” Tony nodded. He put the gauntlet down.

“That too,” Anthony said, “but if they happen to see you down here, as long as I haven’t been wandering around sans suit, they probably wouldn’t be surprised.”

“As long as they don’t assume something I don’t know about,” Tony pointed out.

Anthony thought about it, with the crash space in the back that Pepper had insisted on, and the mini kitchen, and realized he really didn’t want to do that. He knew that, even with the workspace, he’d go crazy if he was confined down here, but something had to be done.

Then the alarms went off and any plans Anthony could have made were diverted by the need to go. “Stay here,” he told Tony, “we’ll figure something out.”


	5. Shatter Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read somewhere that this is canon. In the comic where they fought Molecule Man and Tony lost his armor this is what he was wearing. P.S. I’m not a scientist, I just picked something that sounded scientific and is probably impossible, but that wasn’t the point. Enjoy! Also, another reminder that comic-canon is not this. I just went for easy genderswap here, Natasha and Clint for the other two.

Tony was buried in his gauntlet when the Avengers returned. As he’d suspected, the whole glove had been misaligned by the magic and he now had to fix all of it. At least, it was something normal. Something that didn’t emphasize that he was either being held captive by Loki or in an alternate dimension. Especially the alternate dimension part. He figured being Loki’s captive meant one of two things, the first being that he was mentally trapped and would have to find his way back, the second being that he was physically trapped and this was an elaborate game. As he fixed another miniscule hinge, Tony sighed and wondered if, after all this time, he should consider praying. After all, if the Asgardians were real, wouldn’t it be possible that God was real?

Any further contemplation was interrupted by the double door exit into the mansion slamming open. Tony looked up, to find Anthony, looking harried and wearing a bright red toga, burst into the room. “See,” he said, turning around to face people behind him as he backed into the lab, “There are two of us.”

“Anthony,” Tony said, “what’s going on, nice toga by the way.” He nearly bit his tongue as Steve, Thor and two people he’d never met stepped into the room. For a moment, Tony considered that they might be SHIELD agents, but even Fury would think twice about forcing his agents into wearing the odd, brightly colored spandex body suits they sported. Coulson might, but it wasn’t Fury’s style. They were looking from Anthony, in his bright red toga and somewhat crazed gestures to Tony, in his black pants and muscle t-shirt and back. “Steve, Thor, people I don’t know.”

“He’s from an alternate dimension,” the unknown man said, twisting his hands together for a moment.

“Actually, I’m only seventeen percent certain of that,” Tony said, struggling for a casual air, “I’m eighty-three percent certain that the spell Loki cast has simply trapped me in a dream world where in I am imagining all of this.” It was actually closer to ninety percent, but there was no reason for these people to know that.

“See,” Anthony said insistently.

“By the way,” Tony added, setting down the gauntlet parts he’d been working on, “what happened to ‘I don’t want to reveal my identity’?”

The quartet assumed disapproving expressions, also looking at Anthony, who seemed to deflate. “Molecule Man happened,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry, but who?” Tony asked, still trying to keep his calm, because seriously, Molecule Man?

“Molecule Man,” the unknown man repeated, he ran a hand through his hair, “it’s quite fascinating really. He possessed the ability to destabilize atomic structures through the dissolution of electrons.”

“Giant-Man,” Steve said, in an almost weary voice, “not all of us can understand you.”

“I can,” Anthony and Tony said in unison.

“What Hank means,” the unknown woman said, giving the man a brief smile, “is that Molecule Man can make things dissolve. Things like Captain America’s shield and Iron Man’s armor.”

“Not to mention the clothes under said armor,” Anthony muttered.

“The shield?” Tony gaped, “The vibranium shield that is the first example of worked vibranium in modern history? He dissolved that shield?”

“Yes,” Steve said shortly.

“My God, Captain,” Tony said, “I’m sorry. My father told me how important that shield was.”

“I got it back,” Steve said, and Tony realized that he could see the all too familiar shield slung over the man’s back, “somehow.”

“But not Anthony’s armor,” Thor added.

“Ok,” Tony said, “so this, this, this, Molecule Man,” he stopped and turned to Anthony, “How do you say that without laughing?” Anthony glared at him, “Right, so, this Molecule Man put Anthony in the all together and the first thing he does is tell you about his double in the basement? Of course, that’s what I would do; oh wait, except I wouldn’t have to, because I would have told someone when it happened. Mostly so, that Coulson won’t actually taser me, but still I guess the question is, now what? Because if this is the part where you start trying to kill me, I’d appreciate some warning.”

“Mr. Stark,” Steve began.

“Tony,” Tony said flatly, “My father was ‘Mr. Stark’.”

“We are not going to randomly start trying to kill you,” Steve continued, as if Tony hadn’t said anything.

“Good,” Anthony said, “Because I really would like to put some clothes on.”

“And I would like my cape back,” Thor replied.

“If he’s naked under that, I’d just burn it,” Tony muttered.

The four other men all turned a bright red, and the woman winked and gave him a flirtatious smirk, “Oh Molecule Man didn’t vanish all of Iron Man’s clothing, Tony. Our dear Anthony did protect his most valuable assets, of course. Although, I’m not quite sure that a bright red thong was the wisest choice.”

That right there, made Tony wish he’d never given up drinking. No matter what the cost was.


	6. Fun House Mirrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what’s harder by now, double checking my facts even though this has few nods to canon or thinking of mirror related titles for the chapters. Either way, another chapter of what is listed in my folders as ‘Magic’ because the original title/working title is ‘F**k Magic’ and I hate to swear in my titles.

It had been a week, a long week, since Tony had arrived in this ‘alternate dimension’ and things were still not looking up. Except that, he’d managed to repair the suit.

This world was strange, especially given that 9/11 had never happened here. He had stared at the video of the World Trade Center for nearly an hour once he’d seen it and if he’d let a few tears slip free, he’d been given understanding when he explained it. Not only that, but the Avengers weren’t the only superheroes around. Apparently, there were mutants upstate and another team on the other side of Manhattan.

They didn’t even work for SHIELD in this universe. They worked with SHIELD, or on a case by case basis, but they weren’t agents.

Not only that, but the ‘Avengers’ were Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, which Tony had anticipated, but instead of Agents Barton and Romanoff, there was ‘Giant-Man formerly known as Ant-Man’ and ‘The Wasp’ Giant-Man or Dr Hank Pym could, apparently talk to ants and alter his size and The Wasp or Janet Van Dyne his lab assistant and fashion designer. As far as Tony could determine, in fact, Barton was some crazy evil archer called Hawkeye and Natasha was a Russian KGB spy. Which, he could totally see for some reason.

While that was all unsettled Tony, not the least being his double that he tried to think of as a twin and not, you know, him in another world, the thing that offended him the most was Anthony’s arc reactor. If he could call that thing an arc reactor. It was ugly, dysfunctional and whenever it ran out of charge he plugged himself into a wall. He still didn’t believe that he was in an alternate dimension, but that, that, battery that Anthony sported just made him want to tear his hair out.

Of course, Anthony found this out by walking into the dining room at the Avenger’s Mansion to find Tony working on sketches for a new arc reactor. “What are you doing?” Anthony asked, looking over the papers.

“Building a better battery,” Tony replied, “that thing is obscene.”

“Why do you hate it?” Anthony asked, crossing his arms defensively.

Tony tapped his chest, “I have one too, but I don’t have to plug into the wall.”

“It’s not like that,” Anthony muttered.

“What’s going on?” Steve asked as he stepped into the room.

“Nothing,” Anthony said.

“I’m flaunting my superior intellect,” Tony replied. He flipped a paper over to Anthony, “See, using this design, you’ll get at least a fifty percent increase in power.”

Anthony studied it with a frown, “What do you use as the primary, palladium?”

“No,” Tony said his tone harsh and sharp. “Not palladium. No matter how powerful, unless your building armor for someone like Rhodes never use palladium for power.”

“Why?” Steve asked.

Tony touched his arc reactor again. “Because dying of palladium is not as much fun as people would have you think.”

“What?” Anthony demanded.

Tony closed his eyes and pulled up the shirt he was wearing, “This used to be powered palladium,” he said, looking at them. “If I hadn’t of found the element I’m proposing we use, I would have died within a year of Afghanistan.”

“What element is this anyway?” Anthony asked, studying the paper again.

“Dad discovered it,” Tony replied, “but he didn’t have the technology to create it. I had to do that part.”

“What do you need?” Anthony asked, looking at Tony over the paper. Tony wordlessly handed over the list of equipment and materials. “I don’t have any of this,” he announced. “This is pretty sophisticated equipment too, I’m not sure I could get half of it.”

“I know,” Tony muttered as he idly sketched the changes to the suit that Anthony would need. He had already treated the entire compliment of the house, including the human butler Jarvis, to a rant on the lack of sophistication around the Mansion. There were no touch screens, no AI, no house wide surrounds, no 3D holograms in the workshop. It was like his worst nightmare, which didn’t help with his belief that he was caught in a dream world and not an alternate dimension.

“We’ll ask Reed Richards if he’ll help,” Anthony said suddenly, “but I don’t know how you’re planning to get this hooked up to me.”

Tony sat back, “Do I have to do all the thinking around here?”


	7. Broken Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with the Fantastic Four!

In the end, Tony wore the Iron Man armor and accompanied Anthony to the ‘Baxter Building’ to discuss creating the new element with Reid Richards. It had been decided between the Avengers and Reid, and perforce the rest of the Fantastic Four, would be told Iron Man’s identity. Tony had sat back and enjoyed the chaos of that discussion because Anthony guarded his identity the way Tony guarded the arc reactor and suit technology. That is, not even Nick Fury’s agents had been given the formula for Tony’s power source despite Fury’s repeated attempts to obtain them.

It especially helped that Tony had upgraded Jarvis’s protocols after SHIELD had first walked into his Malibu mansion and tried to take over.

Still, their arrival at the Baxter Building had caught some attention, because Anthony had rarely been seen with his bodyguard and, given the open nature of the Fantastic Four’s identities, there was press everywhere. “See,” Tony said as they stepped onto the elevator, “I told you this could be a good thing. It cements your secret identity by showing up with me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Anthony muttered. “Don’t say anything to any of them until I tell them.”

“Fine,” Tony said, “I said I wouldn’t.”

They got off the elevator and Tony understood why Anthony had warned him multiple times not to say anything. They were met by The Thing, Ben Grimm, a man whose reaction to the space radiation had been to create a stone-like exoskeleton with greater strength and size than before. “Stark,” Grimm said, “Iron Man,” he gave Tony a long look. “Good to see you both. Reid will be in here soon, Sue just went to haul him out of the lab.”

“Thank you, Grimm,” Anthony said.

“Have a seat,” Grimm added, waving his hand at the large loft.

Tony followed Anthony over to the couch, but he stayed standing as a bodyguard should. Moments later, a woman, came in, arm in arm with a distinguished man in a lab coat. “Dr. Richards,” Anthony said, standing up again. “Thank you for agreeing to see me.”

“You said you had a puzzle I couldn’t resist, Mr. Stark,” Richards replied, “and it’s Reid, and you must remember Sue.”

“Of course,” Anthony replied, shaking Sue’s hand, “call me Anthony.” He stepped back and took a quick breath, “Before we start, there is something I would like to tell you, provided you all agree not to share this information with the public.”

Richards looked at Sue, then over at Grimm. “We won’t tell anyone but Johnny,” Sue said, “and Johnny won’t tell anyone.”

“Ok,” Anthony said, and took a deep breath, “I am Iron Man.” He looked at each of them, “Remember when I called to ask if you doing your dimensional experiments?” He glanced at Tony, who took that as his cue to pop open his helmet, “It was because I have a visitor from an alternate dimension. This is Tony Stark, in his dimension, he is also Iron Man.”

“I’m still over fifty percent certain that this is a dream prison by Loki,” Tony added, “but it’s nice to meet you as long as you don’t try to kill me.”

“An interdimensional visitor,” Richards said, “how?”

“Loki,” Anthony and Tony said in dry unison.

“You’re Iron Man,” Sue said, “and you’ve always been Iron Man?”

“Yes,” they said, again in unison.

“That’s really creepy,” another voice said and a young man walked in. “Whoa, have a cloning accident?”

“Tony,” Anthony said, “meet Johnny Storm. Johnny, this is Tony Stark, from an alternate dimension.”

Tony eyed Johnny for a moment, and then nodded to him. “Are you here to see if I can get him back?” Reid asked.

“Actually, no, but we should discuss that,” Anthony said. “Among other things, Tony and I both were captives in Afghanistan, but things were different.”

“By different,” Tony said, “he means we have completely different technology where I’m from, and I’m probably smarter than he is.”

“You can’t say things like that,” Anthony replied, “intelligence is relative and hard to measure.”

“No, but you built that monstrosity you call a ‘chest plate’ and I built an arc reactor that operates on its own power.” Tony replied, unable to keep a hint of pleasure from getting into his tone. He liked arguing with his counterpoint.

“You also nearly poisoned yourself with the power source,” Anthony pointed out.

“I got better,” Tony replied and turned to the four amused spectators, “which is where you come in. Anthony’s done a lot for me since I got here, and he does still owe me for the Molecule Man thing, but I wanted to do something for him. I want to build him the same style of arc reactor that I have, only specific to his needs, but to power it we need your help.”

“What can I do?” Richards asked.

“We need to create a new element,” Tony replied, “My dad discovered it back in the nineteen seventies, but he didn’t have the technology to build it. I was able to create it in my lab, but Anthony doesn’t have the equipment needed to do so. He said you might.”

“A new element,” Richards began, “What kind?”

Anthony took the papers from his pocket and handed them over, “We wrote down what Tony knows.”

“Can I see it?” Richards asked.

“The arc reactor?” Tony asked, surprised, “Uh, why?”

“Curiosity, I’d like to see what you did,” Richards replied.

Tony considered for a moment, and tapped his chest plate, “Open the chest plate,” he commanded the primitive AI. There were some hisses and mechanical noises and then he caught the plate in his hands. “Here,” he said, “don’t touch please.”

Richards stepped forward and considered his chest for a long moment, “That’s fascinating, what does it power?”

“Electromagnet,” Tony replied, trying to hide just how uncomfortable he was. “I have shrapnel in my chest that can’t be removed by surgery. The magnet holds the shrapnel away from my heart.”

“You have one as well?” Richards asked Anthony.

“My chest plate is different,” Anthony said as Tony refastened his plate. He pulled his shirt back, “It has to be recharged, but the principle is the same.”  
Richards nodded as he regarded it for a long moment, “And this new element will do what?”

“It will serve as a power source,” Tony said, “I’ve had mine for over a year and I’ve experienced no problems.”

“He said something about being poisoned?” Grimm said.

“The original arc reactor,” Tony said, “was powered by palladium. The palladium leaked into my body and was poisoning me before I was able to discover and create my father’s element.”

“Sounds like quite a ride,” Johnny commented.

“Let’s just say I got a new appreciation for life and an utter fear of Natasha Romanoff.”

“The Black Widow?” Anthony said, “What did she do?”

“She stabbed me in the neck with Lithium Dioxide,” Tony said, “on orders from Fury. It counteracted the effects of the palladium and gave me the time I needed.”

“She’s on your side?” Johnny said.

“She’s an Avenger,” Tony replied, “and a SHIELD agent. Really good at taking down bad guys, beautiful, but I wouldn’t trust her evaluations.”

“Why not?” Grimm asked.

“’In terms of recruitment for the Avengers Initiative, Iron Man yes; Tony Stark, not recommended’” Tony replied bitterly.

“Ouch,” Johnny said, “and you became an Avenger?”

“They didn’t really have a choice,” Tony replied, “they wanted my tech, they got me. Now, about the arc reactor, Dr. Richards, will you help us?”

“Let me go over this,” Reid replied, “and I’ll get back to you.”


End file.
